In Your Shoes
by thejordipie
Summary: After an argument, Archie and Theresa wake up in each other's body's. With only a few days to reverse the curse until it becomes permanent, they have to settle their differences once and for all and really learn to see things eye to eye. (title might change, i've just been calling it "bodyswap fic" on tumblr and forgot to come up with a legit title or summary until this moment)


**A/N: original idea from tumblr! I just ran with it! Also posted on tumblr on my COTT page and my personal blog. ****Fun fact, been working on this for MONTHS and still hate parts of it (you can totally see the point where i got bored writing it and just wanted the darn thing done and rushed it lol) Hope y'all like it!**

"Good work today, everyone," Jay said, patting the back of his neck with a towel. He tossed his head, flipping his sweaty bangs out of his eyes. He grinned around at his teammates, pleased with the practice today. Now that the prophecy had technically been broken when Theresa had defeated Cronus, there was no telling what the future would hold. To prepare, they'd been training and practicing harder than before, and it was paying off. Together they were moving and working together like never before; even Odie could handle a sword with above average proficiency. But still, there would always be room for improvement. "We'll run the same drills tomorrow, but I think we'll switch weapons and partners. I want to make sure we're able to fight with whatever, and against whoever, we need to."

It was late afternoon, and the group had been training in the shipping yard. Jay had wanted to make sure they trained more in various terrains, and today's training was taking place in harbour. The workers had finished for the day, so there was no one around to yell at the kids or chase them off. They came straight after school in Herry's truck, which he had parked around the corner. Due to previous training incidents, he didn't want it anywhere near where Odie would be handling weapons.

Around Jay came the nods and murmurs of confirmation. Herry bent over a cooler and straightened up, cradling an armful of water bottles which he turned and tossed around to everyone. Neil swatted Odie's out of the air with a mischievous grin while Odie scrambled to catch it, Archie caught his without looking, and Jay raised his in a quick "thank you" before taking a sip. It was a practiced routine, finishing training and switching gears from heroes back into teenagers. A routine that continued with the kids branching off and making plans for how to spend the rest of the night.

"Enough shop talk, Jay," Atlanta said, slinging a towel around her shoulders. "We literally _just_ finished today's, we can wait until tomorrow to _talk_ about tomorrow's." She quirked an eyebrow at him, showing she meant nothing antagonist, just wanted to be done working after a full day of school and training.

Jay chuckled, agreeing with a quick nod. "Fair enough." He tossed his towel in his gym bag, pulling the strap over his shoulder and taking another long sip of water. He turned to leave, calling over his shoulder, "I'll see you guys later, I want to fit in a run before I call it a day." Theresa rolled her eyes and stepped into his path, bumping her shoulder against him.

"Uh, Jay? Did you miss the part where we spent an hour sparring? You sure you don't want to come back with us? It is game night." Theresa folded her arms, popping a hip to the side. "You have to take a break sometime," she reminded him, a little more gently. "Won't kill you to make time for fun, you know."

"I know," Jay said, ducking down to drop a quick kiss on Theresa's cheek. "I'll relax later, deal?"

Theresa rolled her eyes and sighed. "Deal," she agreed, with a begrudging air. Jay shot her a grin, gave the team one last wave before stepping around her and heading out of the harbour, already picking up speed into a light jog. She sighed, then turned back to the group, pulling a smile on. "Anyone else bailing on game night?" Her shoulders drooped as all hands raised.

Atlanta grimaced. "Math test, gotta study."

"Visiting Granny," Herry said nonchalantly, biting into an apple he produced from his bag.

Odie jabbed a thumb in the vague direction of the school. "Got some tweaks to Hermes' system I promised I'd take a look at after practice. Sorry."

"Are you kidding? I haven't got any tanning time in for three days! I'll be on the roof," Neil informed her, shoving on a pair of sunglasses. "I start shooting for that swimsuit campaign next week and I _refuse_ to spray."

As each person gave their excuse, they filed past Theresa, towards the truck. Atlanta, Neil and Odie piled into the back, while Herry hopped in the front seat. Finally only Archie was left, and he and Theresa locked eyes. She raised an eyebrow, waiting for an answer.

"Well, 'Lanta's got that test, so I was just going to hang at the mall until she was done studying. Game night's not as fun if it's only us anyway, right? What's the point?" He shrugged one shoulder and stepped past her. "Jay will play with you later."

Theresa opened her mouth to retort when the vision hit. Her head throbbed, and she clapped a hand to her forehead. Her hearing shifted between the sounds of the city around her and the familiar shimmer sound that accompanied her visions. Panic and confusion swept over her, and she heard Archie's voice yelling for help as if from down a long tunnel. She shook her head and the feeling and echoes faded away. She reached for Archie's arm. "Archie wait- I'm having a-a feeling, it's-"

Archie snorted. "Lemme guess, danger? Or, ooh, did Timmy fall down the well?" He finished pushing past her with a scoff. "C'mon, not this again. You don't have to make everything into life or death, we've been over this."

Theresa's jaw dropped at the unexpected venom her vision was met with. Her hand dropped and her forehead crumpled into a scowl. "Excuse me? What was that?! I'm just trying to _warn _you-"

"Look, I'm just saying that after that whole purple astral projection thing, I thought you had a better grip on your powers. But you still seem perfectly fine to go from zero to a hundred over nothing. All you ever feel is danger, we get it, an evil god is after us. Just… give it a rest." He shrugged, hands jammed in his pockets.

Theresa didn't know what made her more angry; the fact that they had had this argument hundreds of times before, or the completely level and unaffected tone his voice took, showing that the hurtful things he was saying to her were barely worth a second thought to him. "Archie, I can't help what I see and feel in my visions, you _know_ that," she said, slowly, through gritted teeth. "I thought you understood that."

"Oh, that, I understand," Archie snapped back, turning back to her. "It's just the whole production of it I don't get." He held his hands out, palms facing each other, holding his arms to the left. "Have the vision," he said, moved his hands to the right, "then talk about it normally. I don't see why that's so hard." He flung his hands up in a shrug and started moving away again.

Across the street, Herry rolled his window down. "Uh, guys?" he asked hesitantly.

"GO!" Archie and Theresa yelled back in unison. Herry blinked and rolled his window up. He didn't make any move to drive though, since he and the other occupants of the truck were pressed up against the windows waiting to see how the unexpected argument would play out. A back window rolled down, and everyone turned to look at Neil.

"What? I can't hear what they're saying," he said innocently. He rolled the window down a little further.

Opening the window wasn't really necessary, they realized pretty quick. Theresa and Archie were still arguing, getting louder and angrier as they did.

"Look, why don't _you _try having flashes of the future and vague feelings of danger and see how _you _deal with it?" Theresa snapped.

"Gladly! Sounds like a piece of cake!" Archie yells back arrogantly.

Theresa huffed in frustration, balling up her fists and narrowing her eyes. "What, you think you're so tough because you can't get sick and have a magic leg brace? You couldn't last _one day_ with my abilities!"

"Oh yeah? I could so! And I wouldn't be such a drama queen about it, either! And, for your information, my heel isn't an _ability_, but at least it doesn't make me go all doomsday every five minutes!" Archie started walking away, throwing his last retort over his shoulder as he went. As he turned away from Theresa, he caught sight of the others basically hanging out of the truck windows. He switched his glare on them until they leaned back inside and the window slowly slid shut with a faint mechanical whirring noise.

He took off quickly down the street, leaving Theresa stood at the mouth of the harbour, fuming after him. "You really need to learn to see things from someone else's perspective Archie, and I really don't get why this is still such a problem for you!" she shouted. As he disappeared around a corner, Theresa felt the fight drain out of her. "Talk about zero to a hundred," she muttered to herself. She felt slightly dazed, like the fight hadn't been real. It had blown up so suddenly out of no where and was gone just like that. She hugged her arms around herself and looked back across the street to see Atlanta getting out of the truck.

"Hey, you okay?" the younger girl asked, jogging over and putting her hand on Theresa's shoulder. "I knew he was in a bad mood today, but I don't know where that came from, I-"

Theresa shrugged Atlanta off and immediately felt bad about it as Atlanta's shoulder's dropped and worry creased her face. "I'm fine, really," she cut in quickly, putting her own hand on Atlanta's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, it's not your fault he's such a piece of work." She quirked one side of her mouth up in a smile she didn't really mean and Atlanta sighed and looked up at Theresa.

"I know, but still. I told him maybe he should sit this one out if he was so cranky and it's really not your fault, it's-" Atlanta stopped herself mid-sentence and looked away, and Theresa felt a flicker of intuition-not superhero intuition, just regular teen girl intuition. There was something Atlanta wasn't telling her, and before Theresa could open her mouth to prod Atlanta into telling, the hunter sighed again and shook her head. "It's not my business, I shouldn't say, but he just had a really bad day and-"

Theresa cut her off with a sigh and a wave of her hand. "It's okay Atlanta, you guys go home. I think I just want some space right now. Really, it's okay." The older girl started to back away, turning to head down the street the opposite direction of where Archie had went. "I might just catch up with Jay on his run, I'll meet you guys later." She didn't wait to hear what Atlanta or the guys said, just spun around and slung her duffle bag over her shoulder and slipped between two buildings and out of sight.

Atlanta turned back to the truck and shrugged. She started to come back over and Neil swung the door open for her.

"Oof," Herry said. "What was that all about?"

Atlanta, who had been climbing into the seat and buckling in, looked up to see several curious pairs of eyes looking at her. She quickly glanced away, not wanting to talk about what had made Archie so mad today in the first place. A long silence stretched out, and eventually Herry finally started the engine and pulled into the street.

Once the others were in conversation amongst themselves, Atlanta pulled out her PMR and dialled Archie. It rang so long she thought he was going to let it go to voice mail before it finally clicked on, and he answered with a short, "What?"

Any worry Atlanta had about how he had handled the fight faded quickly and was overcame with annoyance. "Um, I'm sorry, but I feel like I should be asking you that. More specifically, what did Theresa do to deserve that?"

He sighed down the line, and if Atlanta was hoping for a tone of contrition, she was soon disappointed when he snapped back, "Oh, so you're taking the princess's side? Figures. I can handle myself, why should anyone care about lil ol' me, right?"

Atlanta's eyes widened, not expecting the conversation to devolve into another fight. Rather than give in to the urge to dish out what he was serving, she took a deep breath and sighed. "Surprisingly enough, we do, and that's why I wanted to check on you, but if you still need to cool down-" for the umpteenth time that night, Atlanta was cut off before she could finish her sentence.

Just a quick, "Whatever," before the line went dead and a dial tone met her ear. She pulled the PMR away from her ear to see the others turned around in their seats looking at her. "What?" she snapped, and immediately felt badly about it.

"We're here," Odie said finally, pointing at the Brownstone in front of them. "And unless you're going with me to the school or with Herry to Granny's, this is your stop."

Neil was already out the door, calling his good byes. Atlanta shoved her PMR back into her pocket. "Right. Sorry guys. Guess Archie's bad mood is getting to me too. Thanks for the ride." She slid out of the truck and slammed the door shut, waving as Herry and Odie pulled out of the drive way and carried on. They waved back so she figured she was forgiven.

Atlanta slowly trudged inside, trying to refocus her thoughts on the test she was supposed to be on her way to study for. On the one hand, she was really mad and disappointed with Archie for treating Theresa like that, but on the other, he had had a pretty rotten day and she knew he was just lashing out at the first thing he could. She resigned herself to checking on both of them when they got back then pulled her game face on and trooped up the stairs, heading into her room and closing the door behind her. Her friends would still be there after the math test, her grades were in far more dire need for her attention.

Archie was barely four streets away when a sudden, but intense dizzy spell swept over him. So much so, he staggered a little trying to keep upright, and had to brace his forearm against a nearby building, squeezing his eyes shut tight as a wave of nausea rolled over him. As quick as it had come, the feeling faded, leaving just a general feeling of exhaustion and a growing headache. He blinked several times, trying to clear the double vision that was clouding his eyesight.

For a moment, he got scared. Maybe this was some sort of attack from Cronus. Almost as soon as he started to think he was in real trouble, the sensible part of his brain that usually had Odie's voice reminded him that he hadn't eaten since breakfast and had just spent an hour in a high intensity workout. His body must just be protesting it. Archie decided he would grab something to eat at the mall rather than wait to see what Athena had made whenever he got back to the Brownstone.

When he straightened up, he realized his PMR was ringing. He slowly crouched down to pick it up from where it had fallen out of his pocket and had to squint at the buttons to see which one of the three identical ones floating there were the right one to answer. He shook his head, and his vision cleared. Archie turned it on and pressed it to his ear, answering, "What?"

It was Atlanta, calling to chew him out for fighting with Theresa. He sighed, knowing he shouldn't have been so quick to get annoyed with either of them, but today, anger seemed like the only option his brain would switch to. He wondered wildly for a moment if it was Eros being used by Cronus again before shoving that thought aside in favour of his dehydrated and hungry theory.

He ended his call with Atlanta abruptly and rudely, and felt a little bad about it once the call was ended and he was glaring at the little blue device in his hand. He started to raise it to his ear to call her back and apologize before another dizzy spell swept over him. More than a little alarmed now, he decided to forego the mall and head straight for home. Once the new round of dizziness passed, he made sure his PMR was securely in his pocket and started for home.

It took him far longer than he usually would have to get back. He even ducked onto a bus for several stops just so he didn't have to stumble along with the random dizzy spells still hitting and a truly terrible headache building. Only problem was, he missed his stop by three and had to double back, so by the time he tripped through the doorway, he was pale and shaky and sweat was pouring in rivulets down his face.

Jay was sat at the kitchen table when Archie tripped through the door. He sat up in alarm, slamming a thick book shut and setting it down on a stack of notes as he got to his feet in alarm.

"Archie, what-"

"I'm fine," Archie snapped, or at least tried to. It sort of lost its affect when it came out slurred and slightly stammered. Jay ignored him, catching him by the shoulders. Archie shrugged him off but Jay put his hands right back. "I'm just sick, okay? Just want to go to bed."

Jay still looked alarmed. "I'll get Athena, she-"

Archie kept trudging forward, making for the doorway to the stairs to get down to the basement and his bedroom. "Just want to go to bed."

The older boy wasn't able to do much more once Archie managed to shove past him. It felt like a brief win for Archie, and once downstairs he kept the momentum going, sluggishly traipsing along until his knees hit mattress and he tipped forward onto it. Lying horizontally helped, and he went to crawl further on the bed but his brace got caught on a bed sheet and tangled him up. He groaned, reached down and fumbled for the snaps and latches on his brace to pull it off, and almost before it had hit the floor, he was asleep.

Theresa had only managed to get halfway down the alley she had ducked into before a headache blossomed behind her eyes so quickly she had to stop and clapped her hands to her head.

It passed and was followed by a wave of lightheadedness. She backed against the wall and slid down until her bum hit the ground and she crouched there for what felt like forever. With one hand she fumbled for her bag and reached in to pull out her water bottle. She fumbled the lid open and took a shaky sip. The water helped a little bit, and she waited a moment longer before opening her eyes.

This was weird, she had been fine just minutes ago. They had been training rather hard though, and maybe the adrenaline from her fight with Archie had kept her from noticing how ill she was starting to feel. Still, something nagged at the back of her head telling her that this was something a touch more serious than being tired.

As soon as the current wave of dizziness passed, Theresa shakily got to her feet. A headache was pounding but she set her jaw and straightened her shoulders and set out. One foot after the other. She emerged from the alley and turned back the way she came to start heading for home. It was slow progress, and she kept one hand on the buildings as she went to help steady herself. She would periodically stop for another sip of water and then carry on.

Eventually, the idea crossed her mind to flag a taxi. The driver didn't question the woozy teen girl in the back seat once he saw the gold credit card she flashed at him, and she made it home pretty soon after that.

She was barely in the door before footsteps sounded behind her and she turned around to see Jay jogging up the walk.

"Hey," he grinned, slowing as he came up the steps. Catching sight of her, he slowed further, quirking up an eyebrow in question. "I saw you getting out of a taxi, didn't you come back with the guys? Is everything okay?" he asked, grin fading slightly.

Theresa waved off his concern with a light flap of her hand. "It's nothing, I…. Archie and I had a fight, and I went for a walk and then got hit with the world's worst headache. I just need to lie down. I'm okay, really." Jay reached for her, lightly placing a hand on the small of her back and pulling her closer.

"You sure everything's okay?" he asked again, softer this time, brushing a little bit of hair out of her face. Theresa nodded. Her headache was growing with every moment, she really just wanted to go to bed and lie down. He didn't look like he believed her but he nodded slowly anyway and let her go, but definitely didn't seem sure about it. "Good night, Theresa. Feel better."

"Thanks, Jay. Good night." She tried to muster a smile but was pretty sure it came as more of a grimace. She slowly started up the stairs, pressing a hand to her pounding eyes. Once in her room, she dropped her bag on the floor and kicked it out of the way.

The dizzy spells were coming back with a vengeance and she hurried as quickly as she could to get changed. Once in sweats and a tank top, she flicked the light off, and stumbled to bed. She dropped down and pulled the covers over herself as more pain exploded behind her eyeballs. With a groan, she lifted the pillow and stuck her face against the cool mattress and piled the pillow back on top. It brought a moment of relief, and with it, sleep.

"You up?" Archie could hear Atlanta's whispered question as she cracked open the door. He was, but he didn't want to be; he could barely keep his eyes open. He heard Atlanta stepping into the room, and it made him cringe and burrow further under his pillow. He just wanted to go back to sleep, and not have a conversation right now.

The bed shifted as Atlanta sat on the edge of it, and as much as Archie liked having her around, he really didn't want company right now. He was really exhausted, and his body felt…funny. Something was wrong and he didn't know what, but he just wanted to sleep it off.

"He doesn't mean it," Atlanta started hesitantly. "He just…he isn't the most open-minded sometimes, about things he doesn't understand." Maybe it was Archie's grogginess, but he had no idea what she was talking about. His brow furrowed, and he started to move the pillow to tell her maybe they could continue this conversation when he was more awake. Then Atlanta said, "You okay, Theresa?"

Theresa? What on earth did that mean? He knew he was tired, but didn't think he had been so out of it to hear his own name pronounced wrong, or to have accidentally wandered into and fell asleep in Theresa's room and bed. "Huh?" he asked, and was surprised to note that not only was his body funky and out of sorts, but his voice definitely did not sound like his own. He pushed the pillow off his face and sat up. The room spun as he did, and he pushed a hand to his head and squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the lightheadedness to pass. "W-what do you-" he had been about to say, "What do you mean, "Theresa"? I'm Archie," but his voice was _way_ off and it was disconcerting. He dropped his hand to his neck and cleared his throat and started again.

"What-" Again, his voice was too high and not his own. Archie's eyes popped open in alarm and looked around to see if Atlanta could hear a problem too. She didn't look nearly worried enough. Sure, she looked a bit concerned, but in a more quizzical way than he really thought she should.

"I'm gonna take that as a "no"?" Atlanta half-asked. She leaned closer, ducking her head to catch Archie's panicked eye. "Theresa?"

" I'M NOT THERESA!" Archie burst out, throwing his hands up in the air. Atlanta reeled back in surprise, this time really looking worried, and a bit scared. "WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" Now that he was loud and yelling, it was clearly someone else's voice coming out of his mouth. It was… but that wasn't possible. Even with everything he's done and seen, _that_ wasn't possible. And it definitely wouldn't happen to _them_.

"Okay, now you're scaring me. I'm going to get Jay." Atlanta jumped to her feet and started out of the room.

"Wait!" Archie lunged across the bed and caught Atlanta's wrist just before she moved out of reach. The light from the hall shone through the crack of the door that Atlanta had left open when she came in, and it fell on their hands. Only it didn't look like their hands. The hand holding Atlanta's wrist, the hand attached to his arm and attached to him, didn't look like his own. He stared at it, feeling his breath pick up in panic. And then he realized that he wasn't in his own bed- the sheets were different. From the light coming in, he could tell he wasn't in his room. And now that he wasn't burrowed beneath his pillow he could feel something on his back and shoulders.

He looked down slowly, and noticed the curtain of orange hair. He froze. From down a tunnel he could hear Atlanta asking shakily. "What's going on? Tell me, maybe I can help. Theresa, what's _wrong_?"

That was the last straw. He was yelling before he realized he meant to. "I'M NOT THERESA, I'M ARCHIE! AR-CHIE! IT'S ME, I'M ARCHIE!" Now he couldn't stop noticing all the differences between his usual body and this one - Theresa's- and it was _freaking him out_. The hair, the smaller arms and legs and waist, the uh, chest, the fact that there was no ache in his ankle and heel. If Atlanta was saying or doing anything, he couldn't hear it. The blood was rushing in his ears and his heart was pounding too loudly.

"What is going on?" That was Jay's voice. Archie looked up to see Jay in the doorway, sword brandished. Herry and Odie and Neil were grouped behind him, all in ready stances. Atlanta was stood at the foot of the bed, eyes wide and confused. "Atlanta, Theresa, you guys okay? What happened?"

Just as Archie opened his mouth to start his "I'M ARCHIE" spiel again, a yell from downstairs made everyone whip around in alarm. Archie froze, realizing that that yell, that voice…it was his own.

"Archie," Jay said, and Archie realized he wasn't being addressed, rather Jay was stating who was yelling. "Neil, Odie, stay here with Theresa, find out what's going on in here. Atlanta, Herry, with me!" With that Jay turned and took off, Herry close behind him. Atlanta lurched like she was going to follow Jay but stayed rooted to the spot, still staring at Archie.

Odie stepped into the room, looking at Atlanta, gesturing behind him with is thumb. "We got it here, sounds like Archie needs you downstairs."

"Guy's, _I'm_ Archie," Archie cut in. Odie and Neil turned to look at him, confusion evident on their faces. "No, listen, somehow, I'm in Theresa's body, and I _think_," he paused as another yell from downstairs could be made out to be saying, "I'M THERESA, I'M NOT ARCHIE" clearly in Archie's voice. "She's in mine."

There was a long pause, and the yelling downstairs trailed off, presumably as Jay and Herry calmed Theresa down.

"Gee, that's trippy," Neil finally said, breaking the silence. "Glad it's not me- my body's the only one good enough for me." His hand twitched toward his pocket and Archie rolled his eyes, knowing Neil was dying to pull out his mirror and check his reflection and smooth out his ruffled bed head.

"Not helping, Neil," Atlanta finally said. It was the first thing she said in a while. She stepped forward, back to the side of the bed. She propped her hands on her hips, and tipped her head to the side. "We should probably all regroup downstairs and figure out what's going on."

Archie had finally calmed down by now. The team around him, keeping their cool and staying calm, was enough to help him regain a sense of normalcy. This was their thing, it's what they did. Encounter weird situation, fix weird situation. It was going to be fine. He breathed out slowly, closing his eyes to try and ignore the foreign body he was in. He took a few more calming breaths, trying to regain his own cool and level headedness.

Odie nodded at Atlanta. "Good idea. I can start running some tests to figure out what this is. See what we can do to reverse it." He pursed his lips, tipping his head to the side and propping his chin in his hand. "If we know what caused it-"

Neil scoffed. "Well, it'll be _Greek_, we know that much." At the other's questioning looks, Neil shrugged. "Since Jay isn't here, someone's gotta say it. It has to be Cronus." He crossed his arms, tossing his head. "That guy has got to be running out of ideas if he's pulling bodyswap schemes straight out of cartoons." Neil punctuated his statement with another careless shrug. "I'm just saying is we could use a little originality. All he does is redo old myths and stories and now he's just getting _lazy._"

Collectively, the rest of the heroes ignored him. They could unpack that statement some other time; Archie wanted to wallop him over the head at the very least. Let _him_ wake up in a teen girl's body and _then_ Neil could whine about originality.

"Come on, let's get downstairs. We'll meet up with the others and figure out how to get you two swapped back." Atlanta held out a hand to help Archie up from the bed and he took it, letting her pull him to his feet. He took a moment to get his bearings as the room tilted slightly for a moment.

"Easy," Odie cautioned. "You have to get used to a new height, weight, bone density, muscle mass… a whole new everything!"

"You don't say?" Archie snapped. He wobbled again. Odie and Neil both took a step forward as if to help steady him, but the dizziness passed rather quickly. Once steady, he pulled his arm from Atlanta- having her help him and look at him but see Theresa was a whole extra level of weird he didn't want to deal with right now. Priority was figuring out what was going on, and how to reverse it. And soon. "C'mon." With that, he pushed past the others and lead the way downstairs.

Odie spoke a little louder than usual to be heard as he trailed along behind the rest as they thundered down the stairs. "Okay, let's start from the beginning. When did you first notice anything unusual?"

Archie turned to answer over his shoulder, but upon opening his mouth, ended up sputtering and spitting on some stray hair. He spat it out and furiously swiped it out of his face. "When I woke up, when Atlanta came in," he said, screwing up his face to think back to it. By now they had come to the living room and stood grouped around the couch and coffee table. "Yeah, I heard her come in, and I woke up and I had this headache and everything felt funny. Wait!" No one had been talking but they all froze anyway, watching as he seemed to realize something. "Earlier, when I was on the way to the mall, I got sick. Like, dizzy and-and lightheaded and my head hurt. It's why I went straight to bed."

"Did anything happen on your walk?" Atlanta asked, sitting on the arm of the couch. "Maybe there was some spell or something, Neil's right, this definitely sounds like Cronus."

"I usually am," Neil crooned, draping himself across an entire couch. "Especially when it's obvious."

Archie shook his head, swatting the hair out of his face- or Theresa's face- when it swung around him in an orange wavy curtain. "Nothing I noticed. At first I thought maybe it was some sort of attack but no one came at me and so I just thought maybe I was tired and hungry and needed to go to bed."

"Okay, anything besides that? What else happened before this?" Odie was deep in thought. One arm was crossed over his chest to prop his elbow up so he could rest his chin in his hand while he started pacing. "You were fine this morning. Nothing happened on the way to school. Anything weird at school?"

"No," Archie and Atlanta both answered, a little two quickly. No one else seemed to notice.

"And after school?" Odie pressed. Archie rolled his eyes, huffing angrily. He didn't know what Odie was expecting, him to have some sort of epiphany and go, "hey, yeah, that's right, I met that warlock in a cave and told him I'd looooove to be a princess for a day! Help a fella out?". From the glare Archie turned on him, Odie quickly moved on. "Okay, nothing weird after. So what does that leave us?"

Neil started counting off on his fingers. "So, before school was fine, in school was fine, after school was fine. Geesh, you're not making this easy." He sat up half-way, propping himself up on his elbows. The model frowned in thought for a brief moment then lit up, and idea clearly forming. "Hey! You and Theresa had that fight! And now you're in her body, that's gotta be something to do with it."

"Hey, yeah, you're right!" Archie didn't know how he hadn't realized it sooner. He clenched a fist, a glare settling over this face that wasn't his. "I bet she did something, to teach me some sort of lesson or something!"

Worry lit up in Odie, Neil and Atlanta's faces, and they glanced at each other in alarm. That was not at all what Neil meant to happen, and he didn't quite know how to reverse the train of thought that had sped off with only Archie on it. They all protested at once, assuring him Theresa wouldn't do that sort of thing, that she wasn't like that, but Archie was quick to shoot that down.

"Oh, like she wouldn't steal the god's powers and turn them mortal?" Before anyone had a chance to respond, they realized that the other half of the team was coming up from the basement, and Archie was off, stomping towards them.

Theresa woke up to the sound of running footsteps overhead. She shook of the disorientation of waking up too suddenly, rewinding her memory to place where she was and what was happening. Training, fight with Archie, horrific headache… and then waking up. She took a moment to evaluate how she was feeling; headache was gone, just replaced by incredible exhaustion. She blinked it away, focusing back on the voices and footsteps from above.

It sounded like trouble upstairs; she could hear someone yelling but couldn't make out if it was Atlanta or Athena. Just as Theresa was deciding whether or not it was worth it to get up to investigate - she really was quite exhausted- she froze.

Her bedroom was on the top floor. Unless the others were on the roof, there shouldn't be any footsteps above her. Especially footsteps that sound like they're a couple floors away.

Theresa sat bolt upright and the room spun violently. She clapped a hand over her eyes and gritted her teeth and waited for it to pass. She felt funny, lightheaded but _everywhere_ and something just felt wrong. Probably her intuition trying to get her out of bed and to investigate what's going on with the others.

She swung her legs over the side of her bed, and stood up, then promptly came crashing down to the floor as she put weight on her right leg. She hit the floor hard and sat stunned for a moment.

_Ow_ did that ever hurt. She squinted at her leg through the dark. She didn't remember anything happening to it, but it definitely felt sprained or something. Maybe she did something to it during practice or on that long trek back. As she went to push herself up, he hand hit against something hard and metal. Funny, she didn't remember leaving anything here on the floor, she had dropped and kicked her backpack on the complete opposite side of the room.

Even funnier, in the dark, whatever was on her floor looked like Archie's leg brace. In fact, come to think of it, this room looked like Archie's. It….was Archie's room. Somehow, she was in Archie's room.

Theresa was starting to panic, just a bit. How did she end up down here? Why did she end up down here? She needed to find out what was going on and fast. Using the edge of the bed, she pulled herself to her feet, not putting any weight on her right leg. She leaned over and clicked on the bedside lamp.

The she started screaming.

She definitely was in Archie's room. And the arm that turned on the lamp definitely wasn't hers. She looked down at her body, and felt her heart drop and the air woosh out of her lungs. This wasn't her body. It wasn't close to being her body. It was a male body and in Archie's room and the voice she was yelling with was Archie's voice, and maybe this was just a really weird dream and -

Just then, the door burst open and Jay and Herry ran in. Herry's fists were balled up and ready for a fight, and Jay held his sword in front of him. "Okay, _what_ is going on? Archie? You okay?"

"This is the problem!" she said, and heard Archie's voice come out of her mouth. The more she spoke with it, the more panicked she got. "Me! This! I'm not Archie!" She flailed her hands wildly, gesturing up and down at the body she was in.

Jay and Herry's brows furrowed and they exchanged a glance. Jay tightened his grip on his sword. "What do you mean? Of course you're-"

"I'M THERESA, I'M NOT ARCHIE!" she found herself yelling, fisting her hands in the much (much, much) shorter hair. "I-I don't know what's going on, but it's me, Jay, I'm Theresa." Herry and Jay exchanged glances, both looking more confused than the other. After a moment they looked back at her. She looked up at the leader pleadingly, desperate for them to believe her. They had had plenty of odd situations in their time together, so there was no reason Jay wouldn't believe her. She let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding as he lowered his sword and shifted his position to a more relaxed one.

"Oooh kay, this is a new one," Herry said, grimacing. "We just came from There-aaah, your room, and there's something going on with Theres….uh, I guess not Theresa?" Herry trailed off, trying to follow his own line of thoughts and detangle the situation. He scratched his head.

Jay picked up the thought where Herry left off. "If you're here in Archie's body, that must mean-" Jay started, looking like he was soon to be following Herry's lead and scratching his own head in confusion.

"That Archie's upstairs in _my_ body," Theresa finished. "Let's go up," she said, and started to move toward the doorway. Again, as she put weight on her right leg, it crumpled beneath her, pain shooting from the ankle. She yelped on the way down, and both Herry and Jay moved to catch her but weren't quick enough. She hit the ground hard again.

"You okay?" Jay said, immediately kneeling down to help her back to her feet. He gingerly took her arm, as if worried of hurting her. "This is weird enough from the outside, it has to be twice as disorienting for you. Take it slow."

"Uh, I don't think it's because of that," Herry said. Jay and Theresa looked over to see him holding out Archie's leg brace. "I think you should put this on."

"Oh, right," Theresa said. She clapped a hand to her forehead. How could she forget about Archie's wonky heel? That would definitely explain it.

"Good idea, Herry," Jay said. He helped Theresa up, and she sat on the edge of the bed, pulling her leg up to her chest gingerly. Boy, did it hurt. From the fall, yeah, but also just a constant dull ache pounding away at it. Herry stepped up with the brace and quickly snapped it into place. Jay had insisted everyone know how to get it on and off of Archie in case of emergencies, to Archie's embarrassment, and it was proving useful right now. The thing had more clips and moving parts than one would think from looking at it.

"Okay, Herry, you go up and get everyone downstairs. Atlanta-" it was only now that Jay realized that Atlanta wasn't here with him and Herry shrugged at him.

"She's probably with Archie," Theresa realized. "If anyone would notice something off about either of us, it would be Atlanta." Now that she had the brace on, Theresa gingerly tried weight on her leg. This time, it held, and she stood fully upright, lifting her leg and bending her ankle and trying it out. The metal gave stiff support to the limb, but with all the hinges and sections to it, she still had full range of motion. "Okay, I'm good, let's go."

Herry turned and left first, going to do as Jay instructed and collect the rest of the team. Jay waited a moment to make sure she was fully steady on her feet. He waited for her to pass and then followed behind, and she knew he just wanted to be behind her on the stairs in case she fell.

She got to the top of the stairs and rounded a corner to see… well, _herself_, come marching up to her, Atlanta hanging on her arm and tugging uselessly. Theresa reeled back, stopping too suddenly and leading to Jay bumping into her from behind.

"What did you _do_?" Theresa saw herself saying, glaring fiercely. "I want my body back!"

"Me?! I didn't do _anything!_ And I don't _want_ to be in yours either!" Theresa flipped quickly from being taken aback to being just as angry. This wasn't _her_ fault, and she couldn't believe that he was insinuating that it was.

"Okay, everyone, calm down!" Jay shouted, slipping between Archie and Theresa, blocking them from each other with his body. Atlanta and Odie each had one of Archie's arms, and Neil had wrapped his arms round his middle. It was bizarre, knowing now the angry teen girl in front of him was actually Archie, but still seeing Theresa, let alone three of his team mates physically holding his girlfriend's body back from him.

Theresa and Archie barely seemed to notice his attempts at peace keeping. Behind him, he felt Theresa try to move around him and he side stepped to keep the two separated.

"Oh right, play innocent! Like you didn't just _say _you didn't think I could last a day as you! Change us back!"

"_I didn't _do_ this_!" Theresa yelled, gesturing between Archie and herself. "I don't want this anymore than you do!"

"Well if you didn't, who did, huh? You're the one who-!"

Jay cut him off. "Archie, _enough_! You _know_ she wouldn't do this. I get you're scared, but stop looking for someone to blame and we can figure this out together." He shot a glare at Theresa's face, who glared right back. They stared each other down for a moment, and Archie didn't yell anything else. Jay turned his back on him to face Theresa. "You too. I know this has to be terrifying, and confusing, but we'll figure this out, and fix it, together. There's no use fighting or pointing fingers."

After the ruckus of the shouting and scrambling to keep a physical fight from breaking out, the ceasefire was loud and awkward. Herry stepped back from Theresa and Jay noticed for the first time that Herry had had an arm wrapped around her waist to keep her held out of Archie's way. Atlanta, Odie and Neil unpeeled themselves from Archie, who stepped back and shuffled in an uncomfortable way. Archie and Theresa were still breathing hard but violence didn't seem as likely to break out anymore, so Jay relaxed his own posture and stepped back.

Now that tempers were cooling down and emotions were more in check, Archie and Theresa were really getting chance to process seeing their own body across the room. Sure, they had been looking at themselves but hadn't fully taken it in.

It was hard to wrap their heads around. Normally, you would only see yourself in a mirror, in which case you still have complete control over what your body is doing and knowing what the reflection is going to do. This was not like that.

Theresa's breath caught in her throat, watching her own face look back at her. And although she knew that was Archie controlling it, it was something else to see it and see the different way he held a pose. The set of the shoulders, the way the arms hung at the sides, even the expression on the face. None of it was anything she had ever seen herself do in a mirror or in pictures or a vision and it was just _wrong_ to see her body used by someone else.

Archie wasn't one to spend that much time looking at himself in the mirror; the longest would be when he was touching up his hair but even then he wouldn't really dwell. He knew he wasn't a looker by any means. Neil and Jay definitely had him beat in that category. But still. Actually looking around the room at the faces of his friends and settling his gaze on his own face, it was wrong and jarring and his automatic reaction was to recoil.

The silence stretched out, the rest of the team letting Archie and Theresa take the situation in. Well, that and no one knew what else exactly there was to say.

Archie was the first to break eye contact, turning his head to the side. Atlanta quickly caught his gaze, quirking an eyebrow up in question. He gave a jerk of his shoulder, not know if she'd be able to read his usual expressions on this different face.

"Okay," Jay said, his soft voice loud in the silent room. "Let's take it from the beginning and see what we can figure out."

Archie and Theresa both recounted their versions of waking up and realizing that something wasn't quite right. Odie chipped in with the part about Archie's headache and Jay remembered that Theresa had had a headache too, so she quickly went over her version of her experience. It seemed pretty obvious that the headaches were more than a coincidence, so that was the starting point they had to go off of. Archie and Theresa were all about investigating _right now_ to try and get to the bottom of this, while some (Neil) were more inclined to go back to bed and sort this in the morning. He was very quickly convinced otherwise. With no other plan, the team was piled into the truck and on their way back to the harbour in under 20 minutes. It wasn't much of a plan, but it was all they had to go on.

They drove back the way Archie had come back, retracing his steps until they got to the spot where he had got the headache in the first place. Jay decided to keep going until they checked out the spot where Theresa had got sick, and then they could double back and get out of the car and investigate a little bit more thoroughly.

The truck had barely turned onto the street where it had been parked early when Neil let out a grunt of discontent. "I really hate this street," he started, in a conversational sort of tone, propping his chin in his hand and resting his elbow on the passenger side door.

"And why's that Neil?" Theresa asked absently from the back seat. She and Archie exchanged a glance that they could easily read in their own faces, one that said, "we probably have a better reason to hate it than you do".

Neil sighed, giving a slight pout as they passed a bank with a statue of a woman stood out front. "Because of her," he said pointing. "That Nemesis lady who cursed me with the Midas touch."

"WHAT?" the shout came from everyone, and Herry slammed on the breaks in the middle of the street.

"Neil, when were you going to mention THAT?" Archie yelled, lurching forward to yell at Neil from behind.

"Yeah, you didn't think that was any sort of important in helping figure out what happened?" Atlanta added, leaning behind Neil on his other side.

Neil shrank back in his seat. "Hey, I'm _tired,_ I got woken up in the middle of the night and so I missed seeing how this connected." He paused. "Um, how is it connected?"

"Because, Neil," Odie started, leaning over him to open then door. Everyone started climbing out of the truck, herding around the statue in a loose semi circle. "If there's a goddess known for putting curses on people on a street where something definitely magical and mystical happened, it's significant."

Neil had the good sense to look sheepish. "Oh," he said by way of apology. "Oops."

"Excuse me, Miss Nemesis?" Theresa started. Herry sniggered. At the questioning looks, he shrugged.

"Never heard Archie sound so polite," he explained, then sniggered again, this time Odie joining in and covering it with a cough. They both shut up instantly as both Theresa and Archie glared at them, with a disapproving frown from Jay.

Theresa turned back to the statue. "Could we have a moment?"

A disembodied voice echoed around them, cold and dismissive. "Ha! The mortal children come back again." From the statue, the translucent form of a woman rose, her eyes banded by a strip of fabric, a sword clenched in her hands. Even with her eyes covered, her glare was apparent.

"Look, I don't know what we did to deserve this-" Archie started, clenched a fist and stomping forward. Nemesis swung her ghostly sword to him and he stopped dead, the blade pointed to his neck.

"You _asked_ for it," she hissed. "By deliberately misunderstanding another person's point of view, by pigheadedness and close mindedness. _This _is your lesson." Her lip curled, and she lowered her sword.

"Because we had an argument?" Archie snapped. "What, you just go around cursing anyone who disagrees with someone else?"

"What Archie is trying to say," Atlanta cut in, pushing past him to stand between him and the goddess who looked like she wanted to swing the sword again. "Is that neither of them meant anything by it. He was just blowing off steam, we're teenagers, it's what we do."

"And we were all there," Odie added, gesturing around at the group. "Even if Archie deserves this," ("Hey!" Archie snapped, and was ignored.) "Theresa was just defending herself, she didn't pick a fight."

Nemesis turned her face to Theresa and her gaze softened, just enough to be noticeable. "Some misunderstandings are not as obvious in our minds as others."

"Like that's not a mental Rubik's Cube," Neil snorted and Nemesis quickly whirled on him. Neil scampered to duck behind Herry as she flew at him, her face scrunching into another glare. Herry stepped backwards in alarm, but still threw an arm behind himself to shield the model from the angry goddess.

"I saw hope in your ability to learn from your mistakes, but perhaps _I _was mistaken. Care to revisit your days as Golden Boy?" A threatening tone entered her voice, and Neil frantically shook his head. Nemesis drifted backwards towards her statue, slowly rising. Clearly, to her, the conversation was done.

"Wait!" Jay shouted, raising a hand. Nemesis paused. "You reversed Neil's punishment, because you said there was hope for him to learn from his ways. So does that mean you'll lift Archie and Theresa's if you're satisfied they've learned their lesson?"

Nemesis tilted her head to the side, considering this. Eventually, she quirked her lips to the side in a mocking smile. "Tell you what, children. You will have three days. After that, this shall be permanent." With that, she rose and slid back into the statue.

"Three days to WHAT?" Archie yelled.

"Permanent?" Theresa squeaked.

The group erupted, yelling for her to explain, to come back, to reverse this now. That statue stood icily over them, unmoving and unresponsive. They gave up rather quickly, none looking more defeated than Archie and Theresa.

Atlanta turned to them, her grey eyes heartbroken on their behalf. She threw her arms around them both, and Herry was close behind. Odie piled on next, and Jay and Neil were tugged in quickly after. The team stood in the huddle on the middle of the sidewalk, the statue to one side and the truck still sat in the road with all doors open. They looked small, for a group of seven, and so very alone.

"Okay, okay, let's think," Jay started, pulling from the hug first. "If she won't lift it, we should go to the school. Hera or Zeus-"

"No point," Neil interrupted glumly. "When she got me, I went to Zeus. He said he couldn't do anything."

Silence fell. Theresa wanted nothing more than to lean into Jay's shoulder and let him wrap his arm around her. Nothing made her feel safer than being in Jay's embrace, but the fact that it wouldn't be her body Jay would be holding held her back. She wrapped her arms around herself and tried to imagine they felt like her own.

Atlanta touched Archie's arm, lightly brushing her fingers over the elbow, and normally he would welcome the touch but it wasn't his skin and that wasn't his elbow and he felt more like a body snatcher than he had yet and he stepped away. He turned his face away to not see the hurt he knew would flicker over her face.

"I….guess we should go home," Jay said finally. An unfamiliar note of uncertainty filtered through his words and he swallowed it back, pushing his distress for his friends to the side. They needed a leader right now, not another scared kid. "There's nothing more we can do tonight. Let's go home and get some sleep, it's no use for us all to be exhausted tomorrow."

Nods and murmured agreement came from the group around him. They trooped back to the truck, piled in, and drove home. Herry was a little more absentminded than usual, blowing past a couple stop signs and running a few yellow lights, and where the others would usually point it out, the car stayed silent. It didn't matter much since it was so late, and there was a much heavier weight on all their minds.


End file.
